Bluebird House Quilt

We have this wonderful Bluebird house;  our neighbor made it as a house warming gift. Bluebirds are apparently very particular; the house must be a certain height and face in a certain direction in order for them to make their home there. We must have "nailed" it.  It's been up since the middle of last summer and we've had 3 darling Bluebird families take up housekeeping. They are great fun to watch, very persevering, industrious and wonderful parents. My 4 cats love watching them but for different reasons! When it's time for the babies to fly and leave the nest, the cats are grounded - Inside! no Bluebird "A La Mode" for them.
I love the texture of this little house, the weathering of the wood. I've taken many pictures, thought it might make into an interesting piece. I chose the best angle of about 20 and cropped it.

I printed it on different fabrics to get a feel for what I wanted. It's hard to see but there was a big difference. The first is silk noil which is off white and quite nubby in texture. The middle was done on white 300 count Egyptain cotton. The last was printed on a tanish cotton - smooth surface. For this quilt, I preferred a very clear, true image so the Egyptain cotton was the choice.

Then I started to wonder if I would like a sepia tone. I removed all the color in Photoshop and replaced it with sepia. Since these images will make up the background, they need to be fairly subtle.

There is a big difference between the sepia and true to life version of the birdhouse, as seen below.

I love playing with imagery in Photoshop Elements - cropping images, playing with color and effects. It's endless what you can do and what I know is only the tip of the iceberg. One image can yield so many possibilities that can be incorporated into a collage type background which is the intention here.

When I print, I try to get as many pictures as I can on one fabric sheet. The sheets are time consuming to prepare so I like to get as much mileage out of each one as possible.

Now that I have some of the printing done, I will go through my stash and come up with some good complimentary fabrics for these images.

More to come.